Mario Vargas Llosa upon his arrival at the chair, celebrated in El Escorial (Madrid). HELENA MARGARIT CORTADELLAS
“Here we renew our conviction that culture is an essential part of civilized life, and that literature, art, music and all cultural expressions contribute to the progress of humanity.”
This is how the Peruvian Nobel Prize in Literature, Mario Vargas Llosa, wanted to celebrate the power of culture and freedom before hundreds of personalities from the world of art, politics and economics, who met this Friday in Madrid in the third edition of the annual event organized by the Vargas Llosa Chair and the International Foundation for Freedom under the motto ‘A meeting for culture in freedom’.
The day invited celebration: under a summer sun in the hottest October in memory, the third annual day of the Vargas Llosa Chair wanted to be a meeting point for those who believe that freedom and culture have to be put in courage “in these times of confusion in which intolerance seeks to deform it and clip its wings.
Mario Vargas Llosa with Esperanza Aguirre, his sons Gonzalo and Álvaro and his partner, Nada Chedid, during the temptation that the bullfighter Diego Urdiales has faced. HMC
Some 450 people attended the event held at the El Jaral de la Mira farm, in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, to share, as Vargas Llosa described, a “relaxed, enjoyable and joyful day” in which the guests was able to enjoy a menu prepared by Mario Sandoval and a closed-door temptation led by the bullfighter Diego Urdiales.
The writer has called to “celebrate freedom, so threatened in many places in the world by authoritarian and populist regimes, including several Latin American and imperialist countries, such as Putin’s Russia and modern-day China.” However, for the Nobel Prize winner, “Spain is freed from threats against freedom by extremists and fanatics who seek to detract from the democratic transition, which has brought so many successes to this country, and by independentists, determined to demolish Spanish institutions and impose their retrograde ideas.”
“Just as there are dangers, there are also many achievements to celebrate and the freedom that Spain enjoys is still a reason to share a relaxed, enjoyable and joyful day like this at the beginning of autumn.”
The event was attended by political personalities such as the former president of Mexico Felipe Calderón, the ambassador of Morocco, Karima Benyaich, the former president of the Community of Madrid Esperanza Aguirre, the former mayor of Madrid Jose Maria Alvarez del Manzano, Carlos Rojas (PP), Begoña Villacís (Citizens) or Albert Rivera. They shared the day with the writers Javier Cercas, Ricardo Cayuela, Maite Rico and Eduardo Riestra, and other personalities from the world of art, entertainment and economics, such as Santiago Muñoz Machado (director of the Royal Spanish Academy), Félix de Azúa, the bullfighter Cayetano Rivera or the economists Daniel Lacalle or Pedro Schwartz, among many others.
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They have all participated in an event that aims to celebrate culture and support the numerous initiatives promoted by the Vargas Llosa Chair: literary awards, contests, seminars, festivals, recognitions, meetings with writers and a network of universities.
The guests at ‘A meeting for culture in freedom’, the third edition of the Vargas Llosa Chair, have been able to enjoy a menu prepared by Mario Sandoval.
Mario Vargas Llosa also wanted to remember Carlos Alberto Montaner, who died recently and “one of the great friends of the cause of freedom”, for being one of the “few people in the field of our language who has defended the culture of freedom.” freedom on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Vargas Llosa Chair, host of the event, was born in 2011 and has been dedicated since its inception to promoting the study of contemporary literature, promoting interest in reading and writing, and supporting new Ibero-American literary creation. With this purpose of recognizing the work and literature of established writers and promoting new talents, it also organizes the Mario Vargas Llosa Novel Biennial, the Vargas Llosa Novel Prize, the Emilia Pardo Bazán Historical Story Prize, the Young Journalism Prize or the El Desafío Short Story Contest. In addition, it organizes events such as the American and European Writers Literary Festival, among others.
Javier Cercas was in charge of celebrating literature, who spoke during the event to remember the power and usefulness of the written word and the eternity of the characters in novels such as those who still live in the works of Vargas Llosa, who will soon release his latest book, I Dedicate My Silence to Him, a cultural utopia in which the protagonist Toño Azpilcueta discovers a virtuoso guitarist who makes him dream of writing a perfect book and uniting a country through music; a dream that can be compared to those windmills against which Don Quixote fought.
Vargas Llosa during his speech.
According to Cercas, those characters like Don Quixote or Marian Bovary “what they want is to make their dreams come true,” and that is what the novels teach. “They teach the most you can aspire to, living a life. They teach to be able to say no, to rebellion, to insubordination. That’s why novels are dangerous. That is why tyrants and inquisitors have tried to extirpate the novels. What power always wants is for them to always say yes, and that is why Plato threw us out of the Republic. Because good novelists are dangerous. ‘The writer is a restless conscience’, said Sartre. Mario says: ‘The writer is a killjoy.’ I say he is a cash cow. That is what literature teaches, it teaches how to be citizens. “Is there anything more useful than this?” asked the Planeta Prize-winning writer.
2023-10-06 22:15:39
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